Women's March In Sacramento Draws Thousands

A day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, several thousand protestors took to the streets for the Women’s March on Sacramento.

The march, which began at 10 a.m. in the city’s Southside Park, flooded midtown with people carrying signs, wearing pink hats, and chanting.The crowd was so large that it delayed Sacramento’s light rail system downtown as throngs of people marched to the state Capitol.

Rachel Davis of Sacramento was walking with her 4-year-old son and her best friend. She said she thinks Trump’s presidential campaign and his derogatory remarks about women motivated women here to march, joining the millions of others in cities across the U.S.

“I think it definitely fueled some of the fire,” said Davis. “but we’re not out here to support him or protest him, we’re out here to support each other.”

She said she’s supporting women’s reproductive rights, health care rights, and equal rights for everybody. A rally at the state Capitol was set to begin at noon, but people by then were still marching. Crowds stretched from the Capitol’s west steps almost all the way to the Tower Bridge.

John and Sylvia Pichitino came down from Nevada City to march. He held a sign that read “I support her, equality.”

“I think women’s rights are human rights, so I wanted to voice my concerns,” said John Pichitino. Sylvia Pichitino said she’s worried about the Trump administration taking away reproductive rights and dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

Cheri Grevin is with Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and one of the Women’s March organizers.

“We’re concerned about de-funding. It is something that the new President says he wants to do. The new leadership has said that they are going to hold a vote to defund Planned Parenthood,” said Grevin.

Organizers say they knew crowds in Sacramento would be large.

“We knew that we tapped into a wave of energy but I had no idea it would be anything like this,” said Jessica Browning, Core Organizer of the Women’s March on Sacramento.

Amy came to Sacramento from New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) where she was Environment Reporter. Amy has also reported for NPR member stations WFAE in Charlotte, WAMU in Washington D.C. and American Public Media's "Marketplace." Read Full Bio